Travelling alone (solo)

[Ada Rivera]

Time stamp: 57th day of Winter

Living in the city of Ravok's Canal had been nothing compared to her previous journeys. Although Agatha didn't enjoy her experience during the nights there, she loved exploring the lake. Its beauty above water was nothing compared to the lakes floor. The rocks that covered it were partially placed to form a pattern that only Agatha could recognise. Her mother had been there.

Before Agatha was born her mother also travelled and explored. Everywhere she went she would place the rocks of the sea floor to make the pattern of her necklace, which Agatha now wore. Agatha's eye swelled up with tears as she remembered her loving mother and father. Why did they have to explore dry land? Agatha swam up to the surface and took a breath of air. It normally calmed her down. She swam back down to the place where she tied down her belongings, and grabbed a small bag of items that she carried while travelling. One of the items was her small pocket knife that she had recently bought, some small food -most of which was fruit- and a bag of golden mizaz's.

[Ada Rivera]

As Agatha gathered her exploring gear she thought about where she would go next. She liked places not too far away from the water or even city's like Zeltive, right on the water. Maybe somewhere her mother or father hadn't been. The vague memories were enough to upset Agatha for the whole day. When she was sure she had everything that Agatha needed she started swimming out from under the dock. When she was further out she turned to face the city. The buildings on the shore were mostly shops, Agatha searched for the old Library and was successful. She was just able to see the building rising above all the others.

Once she had enough of the city's scenery Agatha dived down under the water and started moving the stones to make the familiar pattern once more. When she finished she swam up a bit to see the image as a whole. It was beautiful, she imagined her mother placing the stones at Agatha's age. The last time she had gone exploring before her death was just before Agatha was born, aged 23. The image suddenly vanished as a sudden storm began. Agatha quickly started to swim towards the dock of Zeltiva. She clutched all her belongings to her chest while quickly kicked her legs.

She arrived at the dock just in time to see a quick lightning flash. Agatha at times like this always grabbed her most valuables and hid in some nook or cranny. But today she sat still on the ocean floor meditating. Ignoring the rolling waves and loud thunder, waiting for her next adventure.

[Ada Rivera]

As the storm continued Agatha remembered her life in Charbosi. Her father was part of a trading business and often taught Agatha how to trade items and negotiate. If you want to trade for a good price or object you have to be good at negotiating. If you say no to an offer the owner is likely to walk away, but if you say, “well the price is a bit too high”, or “I'm not sure, it's a bit pricey.” They will almost always lower the price. It's magical, and funny. He would always start laughing there. Agatha opened her eyes. She would go visit Charbosi some time next Spring.

Agatha looked up towards the sky and through the water saw the bright sun shining out from behind the now empty storm clouds. She uncrossed her legs and looked around, she swam up to the surface just in time to see a cargo ship arrive. She wanted to go up on land to trade something. Maybe here flint was worth something. She grabbed her cloak from under the water. She put it on and grabbed her bag of mizaz's and a small container of water. Agatha swam up out from under the dock. She clambered up onto the wooden floorboards and slowly stood up. The last time she had fully been out of the water was at Syliras when she bought her small pocket knife. She walked straight towards a table with precious jewellery on the counter. She looked at the old human looking back at her. “Hello, I really like these bracelets. Are they for sale?” The man nodded, “Yes they are 20 gold mizaz's.” Agatha remembered her father "Well, the price is a bit to high.” She started turning away, but the man interrupted her with a wait. She turned back the man shook his head, “How about 15 gm?” Agatha looked at him . “OK." She got out her bag of coins and handed him 15 gold mizaz's.

She was feeling hot so she put the bracelet on, said goodbye and walked back to the water. She then took out her money bag from out of the pocket and took the coat off. She sat down on the edge and lowered herself into the water with a quick movement. Agatha suddenly felt much better and soon started to swim towards her items.

[Ada Rivera]

When Agatha was seated on the sea floor she examined the newly bought bracelet. It was a light golden colour with drawings carved into it. Bracelets like this are worth about 30gm, and I went and bargained for 15 gm. She soon got tired from her adventure and dug a small hole that fit her body perfectly, she lay down and fell asleep.

The day went on and so did the night, Agatha woke up the next day. She looked up at the sky to see the sun right in the middle of the sky It must be 12 pm. Agatha had never slept for more than 9 hours. She quickly gathered her exploring gear again and this time stayed close to the ships and dock. She looked around the sea floor, nothing special. Then when she was about to turn around she saw something silver from the corner of her eye. She turned towards it and swam up closer. It was a silver necklace with a memory stone on it. Although the necklace was rusty from the water it still fascinated Agatha. She had never wore silver necklaces as her one was on a black string. She carefully picked up the jewellery and swam back to her temporary home. When she came to her little place she sat down and looked at the memory stone. It had a small carving of what looked like Charbosi's town square. Agatha chuckled lightly, what a coincidence her home town on a rock that she happened to find.

[Ada Rivera]

Agatha was thinking about making a permanent residence in Zeltiva, the water was normally warm and the air was always fresh. She liked it here and would probably stay here the longest. Today she would find a place for her to stay or look for material to build a makeshift “home.” Agatha first decided to find a box to hold the material and soon found out that the task was easy, as many crates fall off of boats near the dock. She found a box that, after prying open, saw it held many apples. She brought a couple of apples back to her first location and then set off with her new container to look for the materials.

She soon came to find another box, this one filled with wooden sticks. It must be used to build buildings here. She was lucky today. She grabbed the second box, it was bigger than her first one and heavier. As Agatha walked along the bottom floor she found that her hand kept slipping off the box, it was really annoying her and slowed her down, so she decided to carve two holes in the wooden crate. She got out her knife and made a small indent in the wood. She then pressed harder into the box and carved out an oval shape that perfectly fit her hand.

She lifted the crate up with two hands, the first box was useless and she wouldn't be able to carry two boxes. She decided she would leave it here and if needed would swim back to get it. As Agatha swam out further she found many useless items that she left in there original places. She kept swimming and soon got tired of holding the box, Agatha sat down onto the sand and placed the box next to her. What will I need to build the house? she asked herself. Wood, string or rope and some furniture. Agatha realised that a house under water would have many items floating up, including the sticks. She blamed herself for not realising that and soon came up with a new idea.

Stones, they would stay on the ground, like in Charbosi. Agatha turned her body to look around. Among the yellow sand she saw many stones around the size of her head. She did not like the idea of carrying them to her chosen area so she stood up picked up her box filled with sticks and started swimming back “home.” When arriving close to her destination Agatha started walking instead. She soon started to see the faint outline of her items tied to the ground. Grabbing a large stone, Agatha tried lifting it, and failed. She would need a smaller stone. Agatha thought about dragging the stone or pushing it and soon found out the rock was stuck in place. Agatha decided to do something else. She grabbed the sticks and swam to her belongings she placed a border of sticks around them and then a second one 20 cm further from her belongings, she left a small gap for a door and then grabbed some small rocks that were lying around the area. She grabbed handfuls of the small stones and placed them into the area between the sticks. Using this method should work.

She soon ran out of stones within her small area and swam a bit further out with the, now empty crate. She filled it up until she thought it would be heavy and swam back to her new permanent house, repeating this many times. Agatha soon got tired and lay down in her small house. The sticks and stones were built up to 1.5 metres at the end of the day but had no roof. Agatha would continue her house tomorrow, and hopefully finishing it.